Stoner quickest in warm-up

Local hope Casey Stoner continued his dominance of the Australian MotoGP meeting ahead of Sunday's race at Phillip Island, posting the fastest warm-up lap this morning.

The 25-year-old, chasing his fourth consecutive Australian Grand Prix crown, was quickest again on the third day of the meeting, scorching to an untouchable lap time of 1.30.942 - a whopping 1.89 seconds ahead of second-placed Italian Marco Simoncelli.

Meanwhile, the race has been hit by its second withdrawal in as many days. Suzuki's Loris Capirossi pulled out on Sunday due to an injury he suffered during a fall in Saturday's qualifying.

Capirossi joins Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who struggled in qualifying after returning from a broken collarbone.

Pedrosa was well off the pace and realised he could not be competitive at the weekend so flew home to Spain.

Capirossi walked away from a high-speed crash near the end of Saturday's afternoon session and appeared to be unhurt. However a medical examination revealed he had sustained an injury to his left groin.

He, too, returned to Europe and hopes to be fit for the Portuguese GP in two weeks.

"I am so disappointed that I have to withdraw from the race," Capirossi said.

"I did not want to but the doctors said that the strain would have made it difficult for me to hang onto the bike and control it for the whole race so they had to declare me unfit."